A ccording to an e-mail message I received earlier this morning, enhanced security features will be added to Marriott Rewards frequent guest loyalty program accounts in the near future:
Dear Brian Cohen,
Safeguarding your Marriott Rewards® account is our top priority.
We’ll be adding enhanced security features in the coming weeks to further protect your account.
To prepare for these updates, we ask that you take a moment to sign into your account and update your profile with your preferred phone number and email address.
Soon, if you make updates to your profile or redeem points for certain awards, you’ll be prompted to enter a temporary code which you will be able to receive through email, SMS or phone. For your convenience, you will also be able to register your device during this process to speed up future account profile changes and redemptions. We value your loyalty and just want to make sure it’s really you ordering that gift card or changing your profile.
Taking this one extra step makes your account even more secure and will help prevent unauthorized access. It’s one of the many ways we’ve got your account – and you – covered.
Sincerely,
Your Marriott Rewards Team
As long as it is not unnecessarily inconvenient for me and security is indeed significantly enhanced, this is good news.
It was certainly not fun when my Starwood Preferred Guest frequent guest loyalty program account was compromised, with my Starpoints wiped out. I then followed up on the story with additional details on what happened; and then I followed up with recommendations on how to prevent — or, at least, reduce the chances of — that from happening again, from which the list is repeated below:
- Do not use your e-mail address as your user name or identification to log into different Internet web sites
- Use a complex password and regularly update it
- Use different credentials — passwords and user names, as two examples — to log in for each of your accounts in different frequent travel loyalty programs
- Always check your account regularly
- Promptly report any potential suspicious activity
If you are a member of the Marriott Rewards frequent guest loyalty program, watch your e-mail account for the aforementioned message, which conveniently contains a link with which you can access your account to update it.
